8 ways to boost work-from-home productivity

With COVID came sweeping changes to how people work & how organizations function. To many organizations, letting employees work from home was a forced change, but with over 2 years of remote work, either employees do not want to revert to offices or some organizations feel that this structure is more sustainable than in-office working.

In either case by letting employees work remotely an organization can save on operational expense, explore hiring that is not bound by demographic, and it also means employees spend less time commuting to & from work.

All that said, remote working does come with its own challenges. According to the 2022 Remote Working survey by Buffer, some of the major challenges employees struggled with were

• Difficulty focusing

• Lethargy & staying motivated

• Not being able to unwind

• Working across different time zones

• Reduced supervision

• Difficulty in communicating with peers

• Social isolation

Studies have shown that, when organizations can crack the code, an employee working remotely can be up to 23% more productive than when working from the office.

Here is how most of these challenges can be done away with,

• Encourage employees to have decluttered & well-lit workstations

As they say “Your surroundings are a true reflection of your mind”, the more clutter there is around, the more chaos there is inside the mind - which directly impacts productivity.

Encourage employees to keep their workstations well-lit by putting worktables by the window or at the very least using artificial lights that simulate daylight conditions. The body's natural response to a dark environment is to decrease body function eventually putting the body to sleep.

If your organization is disbursing a remote working budget to employees, suggest backlighting, good monitors, standing desks, cable management, docks & other products that can enhance productivity.

• Limit distractions

We all know how addictive social media can get sometimes, that never-ending scrolling is productivity hell. One way to ensure that employees don't get caught in this whirlpool is by asking them to put their devices away during work hours (if you are wondering how one can keep track of that remotely, read along to know how) & another way is by allowing all company interaction on the work PC, not WhatsApp or Calls.

• Have a clear schedule

Work allocations can follow a set protocol & a very thoughtfully designed schedule. Be sure to include regular water breaks, dedicated breaks to move/correct posture or even a quick guided meditation by giving employees a subscription to Medito or Headspace. Managers should regularly look out for signs of burnout. Scheduled free health checkups can also make a ton of difference.

• Smooth collaborative channels

Since remote working became the new normal there have been several SaaS services that have made their way to help keep everyone connected & to substitute in-person interactions. Organizations can use software like

Trello for Project Management

Google Suit for documenting

Zoom & Google Meet for staying connected

Loom, Canva & Figma for design

Calendly for scheduling

• Use monitoring solutions for compliance

Organizations can use Eagle Eye’s RemotifAI to remote monitor anomalies, and breaches during work to maximize employee productivity & protect sensitive company data.

• Reward-based motivation

Recognizing good work compounds in effect only results in better productivity. Be it in-office or remote work a healthy rewarding system if put in place keeps the system functioning like a well-oiled machine.

• Peer interactions

Working from home for some might lead to social isolation & the lack of interaction can sometimes transition into depressive low states. A couple of ways to avoid this is to have a hybrid work system, giving them the choice to choose their place of work, regular team dinners/outings, or regular casual interactive digital meet-ups.

• Pro-tip

Productivity is a measure of the quality of work that a person can deliver. So, the best way to ensure that all stakeholders are happy is by adopting a target-based checkpoint rather than a time-based checkpoint.

After discussing with the team, have a certain daily/weekly work target that an employee is expected to meet, if she/he can meet those deliveries then there is no need to track them by the daily hours they spend working.

Try these & let us know if any of these helped your team become more productive while working remotely.